I'm back in the game! Woot!!!

Kyle here. So after today's post with our revelation about my out-toeing I decided to give it a shot tonight. Robbie and I are hoping to do another half marathon in February and so we just looked up another training plan. On the bill for today was 3 miles. My last run was 1 mile before my knee started hurting and that was only 3 days ago. I was hesitant, but hopeful. I knew that if I started to hurt that I could just walk back and things would be okay. With that in mind my goal for today was to run barefoot style, but making sure that I keep my feet parallel.

It was -5º C tonight and the sun was already down. I put on my baselayer, with a track suit on over top. I had my Bondiband toque on with a headlamp. On my feet I had a pair of socks and a pair of Deep See Beach Walker aqua socks. First time running with them on. The shoes worked great. Nice and thin so I could still feel the ground and all the little rocks on the path, but my toes stayed nice and warm.

Ready for a cold and dark run!          My winter running Aqua Socks.

So I get out on the path and I'm making sure that I'm going slow. Keeping my feet light, land on forefoot, kiss with the heel, trying not to over stride. Oh and making sure that my feet are parallel. I keep checking my Garmin to see how far I've gone expecting pain to start up. Every single ache or twinge I'm over analyzing, expecting the knee pain to come. I get a mile into my run and everything feels great. Well mostly everything. The insides of my legs are feeling tight. This is from keeping my feet parallel. I'm now using new muscles in order to change how I'm running. It's aching a little, but it's a great kind of ache. The kind that lets you know that your body is working.

I get 1.5 miles into my run and then I turn around to go back. Still feeling great. I continued to feel great the whole time. About 2.75 miles in my knee starts to hurt a little. I do a quick form check, make sure my feet are parallel and slow down (I had started speeding up a little without knowing it). Wouldn't you know it, the pain goes away. Awesome. I get home after running 3 miles and I'm so thrilled. I feel fantastic and like I can do anything. So great to be back out running again. Looking forward to running some more.

Oh and one more thing of note. It just snowed today so I was running on snow the whole time. No problem. Even ran over a bit of ice. Felt exactly the same as the rest of the ground. No slipping or sliding. I had to turn around and run over the ice again to make sure that it actually was ice. Fantastic! Ice is a great form check so it was good to know that I wasn't doing too bad.